Entertainment, Attractions & Gaming Expo Europe (EAG), the premier event for the international entertainment, attractions, and gaming industries, took place from 14 – 16 January 2025 at London’s Excel. This year’s event included 100 stands occupying 4,958 square metres of space. It enjoyed a third consecutive year of growth, underlining its status as a leading trade expo for the out-of-home entertainment industry.
Bacta, the UK trade association which owns and organises EAG, has confirmed that the number of unique visitors rose to 4,306, a 23 percent year-on-year increase. Visitation, which is a record of the number of visitor days, topped 6,000 (6,100) a 42 percent uplift on the 2024 figure of 4,299.
The figures strongly endorse the strategic choice to introduce the co-located SIE Expo (SIE), showcasing various forms of immersive, competitive, and social entertainment. This event ran alongside the London Casino and Gaming Show (LCG), successfully attracting new complementary audiences and enriching the overall EAG entertainment experience.
A platform for future growth
Nick Harding, who succeeded Martin Burlin as chairman of EAG Expo, says the rejuvenated show proposition provides a powerful platform for future growth: “We’ve drilled down into the attendance data and there’s an awful lot of reasons to be really optimistic about the show’s future.
“Exhibitors want to see buyers and our analysis confirms that 84 percent of those attending EAG, SIE and LCG were defined as decision-makers within their organisations.
“The team has also analysed the number of businesses that were present at ExCeL London, and across all three co-located events the total was 1,973 comprising EAG: 1,562, LCG: 245 and SIE: 166.
“My view as someone who has attended many different industry shows both in the UK and on the international stage is that the number of businesses represented by decision-making visitors is a far more insightful way of measuring the value of an event in helping its exhibitors to achieve their corporate and commercial objectives.”
The 2025 data has further highlighted EAG’s success in drawing buyers from various out-of-home entertainment sectors. The top area of interest among attendees was amusements, which attracted 35 percent of visitors. This was followed by adult gaming centres at 19 percent, pubs and clubs at 15 percent, visitor attractions at 14 percent, casinos at 9 percent, competitive socialising at 4 percent, and bingo also at 4 percent.
EAG also successfully increased its global visitor base, with 14 percent of attendees at the London shows coming from abroad.
“This is a great platform to build on and I have been delighted at the feedback that we have received from both exhibitors and visitors,” adds Harding. “The two new co-located events enjoyed highly successful launches, and we are already taking bookings from exhibitor organisations which used 2025 as an intelligence-gathering exercise and were impressed by what they saw.
“We are in the midst of an extensive digital satisfaction survey of visitors, and every exhibitor is being consulted on a one-to-one basis by a member of the EAG team. The results of our customer research will be fed into the development programme for the 2026 shows, which will take place 13 – 15 January at ExCeL London.”
See also: Social gaming shines at EAG 2025
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